TORONTO - BlackBerry says it is committed to completing a series of major changes quickly after posting a nearly billion-dollar loss and a 45 per cent drop in revenue for the second quarter.

The troubled smartphone company reported a loss of $965 million and revenue of $1.6 billion, in line with what it warned when it surprised the market by preleasing dismal earnings projections last week and announcing 4,500 layoffs.

The company posted revenue of $2.9 billion in the second quarter last year.

The adjusted loss was $248 million or $0.47 per share this quarter. That's far below the loss of 16 cents per share projected by Wall Street last week.

Fairfax, BlackBerry's largest shareholder, subsequently announced it plans to make an offer for Blackberry and is trying to attract other investors. BlackBerry cancelled its conference call with analysts Friday in light of that overture.